


Promise Back to Me

by Lucky_Guardian



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Beyond the Living, Disabled Character, Gen, Hollowclan (Warriors), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inspired by Roleplay/Roleplay Adaptation, Needleclan (Warriors), One Shot, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Clans (Warriors), Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 21:03:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20712500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky_Guardian/pseuds/Lucky_Guardian
Summary: Two apprentices slowly recover after the earthquake that tore apart their clan; and they discuss the future with each other in the middle of the night.[Based on the Beyond the Living RP: https://beyondtheliving-rp.tumblr.com/]





	Promise Back to Me

Batpaw shot up with a gasp, the fleeting memories of her nightmare slowly fading from her mind as it caught up to her being awake now. She stared out into the darkness of the night, focusing on her breathing as she let herself ease into a calmer state.

"Nightmare?"

She looked over to her side to see her friend, Snowpaw, looking tiredly up at her with his calm, yellow eyes. Exhaling with a smile, she nuzzled closer to him, shuffling around to get comfortable next to him again.

"Yeah," she replied, "sorry if I woke you."

Snowpaw shook his head, "I couldn't sleep anyway."

"How come? Do you want to talk about it?" Batpaw asked, lifting her head up again to meet his gaze.

"No… it's fine. Just nightmares, and stress," he mumbled in response, "do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

"Nah, I can't even really remember it now."

"The cave-in?"

"...yeah, probably."

Batpaw couldn't help but think back at the incident that brought them here as it was spoken of. The mines where Hollowclan had once lived collapsed, killing many and injuring others.

"Batpaw? Do you… really think that we'll be able to become warriors?"

Snowpaw's question snapped Batpaw out of her declining thoughts, and she shuffled in place again. As she processed the question, she leaned closer to her friend, resting her tail on his lower back and then curling it up to his upper back instead.

"Of course we will!" she assured him, "maybe a bit later than expected, but we can still be warriors!"

Despite her enthusiasm, Snowpaw didn't appear thoroughly convinced. His gaze drifted from Batpaw's and down to his lower body instead; forever immobile.

"I can't even walk," he whimpered, "you're going to have to learn to see without an eye. What if they think we're a lost cause?"

Batpaw licked his cheek, drawing his attention back to look at her with worried tears in his eyes.

"I don't want to be useless, Batpaw." His voice was a whisper now.

"You aren't useless!" Batpaw insisted, "Snailshell isn't going to give up on you; we aren't going to give up on you. You're going to learn to walk and hunt and fight again!"

"How do I do that with just two legs? I'm going to have to drag my hind legs around!" Snowpaw wailed, digging his foreclaws into the dirt. "I…"

She licked him again, his forehead this time, in a silent attempt to calm him. As she did this, she thought about his question. How could he walk when his lower back was broken?

Suddenly she bounced up to her paws, Snowpaw flinching in surprise at the sudden movement. Batpaw gave him an apologetic smile before beginning to pace around, looking up at the impossibly tall trees of Needleclan's territory around them.

"You're right; you can't drag your hind legs. You'll have to pick them up!" Batpaw announced, turning back to face Snowpaw.

"Pick them up…?" His muzzle scrunched up as he tried to imagine what she was suggesting.

"Yeah! You'll just walk on your front legs and hold yourself up in the air!" she responded, "Can you imagine that? Imagine rushing into battle with your butt up in the air! Our enemies wouldn't even know what to think; you could catch them by surprise!"

Her excitement was contagious, and Snowpaw slowly began to smile at the thought, and then giggled as the image finally came to his head.

"Here, I'll show you! You could- whoops!"

Batpaw stumbled over as she attempted to demonstrate, unable to support her lower body weight all at once.

"Okay, I'll try again!"

This time, she headed back over to a tree, positioning herself to have her back to it. Now with the added help, she began walking backwards up the tree with her hind legs before kicking off and trying to walk forward away from the tree on her front legs. She managed to keep herself upright for a few moments, until her front paw hit a root on her blind side and upset her balance, causing her to crumple into herself on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Snowpaw called out, trying to pull himself as close to Batpaw as he could manage.

"I'm fine," Batpaw laughed, rolling over and crawling back to her friend.

"Are you sure?" He cupped his paws on her cheeks, carefully looking her over. "What about your… herb dressings? I don't think Diamondflower would be happy if she has to redo them."

Batpaw giggled, pawing away her friend, "it'll be fine, don't worry so much about it!" she said, "she'll have to redo them anyway; that's how it works," she added.

After a moment, he seemed to accept her response, and lowered his paws again. She smiled and cuddled up to him again, nuzzling her muzzle into the crook of his neck before lifting her head back up again to lick his ear.

"Oh, your ears are warm. Are you sure that you don't need to see Diamondflower?" she questioned, her smile fading slightly.

Snowpaw's eyes widened, and he averted his eyes from Batpaw's gaze. Looking down, he began pawing with a leaf instead.

"No… they're- they're not warm! You're warm!" he blurted out.

Batpaw blinked at him in confusion, before giggling again at his reaction. She laid her head to rest on her paws, letting out a soft yawn.

"But… thank you, Batpaw."

"For what?"

"For… cheering me up."

"Oh! No problem!"

Snowpaw turned to look back at her, "actually… I wanted to ask you about something."

"Yeah?" Batpaw smiled back at him again, encouraging him to go on.

"This might sound silly… but after everything that's happened to us, I was hoping that you could promise me something," Snowpaw murmured, "I want to become elders together. I don't want to grow up without you! Please, promise me you'll do whatever you can to not… die!"

Batpaw purred, batting his ears, "that is silly, but I promise. I'll try not to die young, fighting a badger on my own or something."

"Thank you," Snowpaw responded, "we should go back to sleep now."

"You're right! We've gotta start training to become warriors in the morning!" Batpaw replied, nuzzling him again.

Laying her head on her paws again, the nightmare long forgotten, Batpaw slowly began drifting back off to sleep.

And distantly, she wondered why the forest vaguely smelled like smoke.

Many nightfalls later, when Batpaw could go to the river where her friend was swept away, she wished she had made him promise her back.


End file.
